“Wait, it’s all a stun... for me?” Flash bailed his eyes out in disbelief.
“Nah, we just have a heated argument, as friends usually do...” Pinkie Pie jumped up and down, answered. “But you’ll have to answer which one of us is the best, still!”
“I... I’m not qualified to answer that...” answered Flash, shyly.
“I could see you and Fluttershy can be good friends.” Applejack said “Maybe you should have dinner with her and Discord one day! They’re a fun couple, although Discord might be a douche sometimes...”
It happened the next day, when Flash and Manatee were given the order to move the hard drive that contained the consciousness of the blue pink-blue furred hippogriff found in the previous day. Thanks to telepathy, Flash can talk to his friends without his mouth open. Sometimes, Flash can really focus on doing it, as if he was in a world of his own, to the point Manatee has to knock his head in order to bring him back to reality.
“Hello, Manatee call Brandon!” she said with a dissatisfied voice “Do you listen to me? Turn the number two screw! No, not that one!”
After each of these “snap back to reality” acts, the friends always giggled.
This cost the duo nearly a day to readied the MS’s most basic functions, which made them leave the damaged armor for the next day. “Yeah, that’s enough for it to fight properly...” the cute hippogriff sighed. When the duo just decided to pack up and head back to their cabins, something urgent suddenly happened.
“The enemy, the enemy is here!”
...
“What the. Why... why’s there no alarms?” complained Gilly who quickly and hastily put up her beat up pilot suit.
“I don’t know. Maybe Glider knows a thing or two?” Gromar turned to the shy aviator Green Belly, who was still running in panic and checking his preflight procedure papers. His calls nearly make him drop all those papers. They flew all over the place by Green Belly's panicking throw, only to be firmly placed in his hoof again by a unicorn who ran to help just in time.
“I... I... I was told that someone... saw... saw them flying when they were going for a drink outside...” he said, stuttering. “The radar did not pick up anything. If they don't hear the engine noise we’re all doomed!”
But that “discovery” was then proven to be too late, as they could hear an explosion already occurring not so far from their well hidden hangar.
“Darn it, they bombed a military camp a few miles from here.” is what Gromar concluded after his base radar was briefly in operation again. It was “Camp Divine”, a pro HGA rebels commanding camp.
“Change of plan!” Gromar announced “We will sneak under the trees and secretly attacking those things from behind! Do NOT use your rocket engine!” Gromar told to his subordinate when they just get their MS out of the hangar. The countless battles have help Flash knew how to be stealthy, which make Gromar’s demand not much of a problem. Additionally and surprisingly, Pinkie Pie can also assist him with some of her magic.
“Just pretend the mud below is cupcakes. I know how to throw cupcakes!” she said “They can blind the enemy’s eye sight!”
“Great plan, Pinkie!” complimented Twilight.
“I will help with the throw too! Make sure we can make a bullseye in the longest range.” Applejack said.
“Just make sure to not pick any poor critters down there, guys!” Fluttershy said.
The previous maintenance with Manatee has helped Flash find out at least some knowledge about the hard drive and the “shock boxes”. Turn outs, they are the hard drives that keep the Council’s and Starlight consciousness. Manatee has insisted that they put Fluttershy’s hard drive out of her damaged “Alicorn wing” into one of the shock boxes in the head, and Flash happily complies with her advice. This means that one of the “Alicorn wings” have to be completely removed, and the other one has to be turned upside down (the beam gun’s barrel pointed into the earth) to gain more versatility and make the Psycho MkII more aesthetically pleasing.
“Now our machine looks 20 percent cooler, right RD?” asked Rarity when she heard Manatee’s explanation.
The section where the left Alicorn wing used to be now placed a standed out white beam saber, spared from one of the salvaged but inoperable Jeagan. To calm Rarity down from that “eyesore” (in the white unicorn’s word), Flash has to say it was temporary and they may paint it dark blue later on.
“Rainbow Dash, you’ll help Flash use the beam gun on your ‘Alicorn wing’! Rarity, Fluttershy, help us look out for the enemy. Pinkie Pie and Applejack will help Flash throw the mud, only when he asks. Me, Spike and Starlight will lend him emergency magic when we’re in real trouble. The whole piloting thing will be your Flash!”
He briefly saluted with a smile and professionally pulled the suit into a swamp with dark, dense columns of trees, in hope that the night would cover them nicely.
...
“So that was the Cancer you promise us, Black Wine?” Nikita looked into one of the monitors on the bridge to see a bizarrely looking red machine with two crab like claws, several well hidden verniers and an also crab loke silhouette.
“That’s right. Before I want to release its inferno on Everfree, I want to use them on the rebels first. There’s a group called Legion of Unity hidden in the jungle near Everfree, as you may have heard. They are just a small group with just a few stolen APCs and a tank. I believed that’s where Twilight and her friends take the Psycho MkII to. The claws that Cancer have can also use their respective beam gun as a flamethrower by the heating of Minovsky particles. Nothing would ever be in one piece with a 5000 degrees Celsius fire! Atomized even!”
“Wait, you know Celcius?” Mark asked in confusion.
“Your human mechanics told me about that. We have Celestial as a unit of temperature measurement here, but I have no idea how to convert between the two.” Red Velvet answered.
Three mobile suits with their own base jabbers were sent out for the reason of just luring the rebels out. Their head mounted 60 mm Vulcan gun was fully armed and one of them was to use its night surveillance camera, also mounted on its head just in front of its main cameras. Other than that, they literally carry no weapons. All of the fighting was left for the bizarre but powerful Cancer.
As the red mobile armor left the Las Pegasus belly, Black Wine also quietly left the bridge, retreating himself towards the hangar. “Now, let’s see how you can protect yourself from being grilled alive, Twilight. But hopefully the fire is just hot enough to kill that Brandon guy other than my precious lost mobile suit.” he said to himself.
…
“There they are! Pull the trigger, all at once!” Gromar order. Numerous columns of beam shots, bullets and even smoke of anti-air missiles fired at the mobiles, making the triangular formation of three flying mobile suits easily break in panic. After just about 3 minutes of constant evading, one of them succumbed to the thick firepower of an HGA battalion and fell to its death.
“Good one! Keep firing guys!” Gilly yelled gleefully.
“Death to the racist!” followed Gromar.
Flash also gets to shoot one of the base jabbers down, leaving one mobile suit alone in the air for it to be exposed to the fire power and explode mid air. The explosion is fairly small, indicating its reactor was intact when its rocket engines were destroyed. The last one was also shot down when it eventually ran out of flares.
“Nice! Flash and Dash, as they say!” Gilly exclaimed.
“Did… did they just call us Flash?” the rainbow mane pony turned to Flash and asked.
“No… No?” he replied.
“Silly! It’s a metaphor!” Pinkie Pie tapped on the head of both confused ponies “It said that they finished the job in a very short span of time!”
“But… that’s it?” asked Fluttershy. “Their ace pilot is not here?”
“Oh… good question… What?” Twilight starts to panic. “I… I thought they only sent mobile suits towards the main forces?”
Flash asked the same question to Gromar, who immediately revoke it:
“Awe man, we just took down 3 mobile suits! Three. Mobile. Suits! This is a HUGE victory for anyone!” He then turned around to his subordinate and said “They fell right into our trap!”
“Haha yes!” the other creatures in the unit started to cheer and chanted “Death to Black Wine! Death to the racist!”
“Ho... Hopefully he’s right...” Spike sighed “I think I don’t like that Gromar guy’s rizz at all.”
“No... No he’s not.” Starlight quickly corrected them. “Rainbow, ready your gun, PP and AJ, readied your hoof! Flash, can you turn back? 6 o’clock!”
Flash did exactly like Starlight’s command. To where the moon was located was a strange looking flying object. Initially, the group thought they saw a dish. Then, as the object came closer and closer, Pinkie Pie suddenly gasped.
“It... It's a giant flying crab!”
“Hey... our Minovsky detector started picking something...” the pink pony then looked over to the monitor.
“Starlight, search the data bank!” Twilight said to her first protege.
“Uh... It said the thing did come from the Federation, which means it is supposed to be a friendly unit. But...” Starlight quickly searched the data bank to find whether it had any information on that strange object.
And the answer is no.
“It said… "Unit Unrecognizable”! What?”
Suddenly, Flash could saw two small dot of bright pink light flashes before his eyes:
“Not good,” he mumbled.
Just after that, his eyes caught a huge explosion. Thanks to his experience of facing much bigger ones, it didn’t cause too much panic. His new friends however, did.
“What the... What the heck!” Gromar screamed “Who blew up our ammo!”
“A new enemy unit... No, TWO OF THEM!” It was Gilly’s turn to scream. “What is that crab shaped thing?”
“Mobile armor...” Flash said to them through the com-link “Heavy mobile enemy unit with simply a lot of weapons on it...”
“Woah!” Twilight exclaimed “I don’t expect you to have this much insider knowledge, Flash! Tell Gromar we’re gonna fight that thing!”
“Colonel Gromar! Permission to intercept new enemy machine!” Flash said through the comlink.
“No, I need you to go to the main hangar bay!” the brown griffon “Remember I used to say that you have brought “an invincible weapon of war “ that we can exploit?”
”Yeah?”
“There’s a captured base jabber with a beam cannon. Yes, we got that thing from Kludgetown too! You’ll ride that thing with Gilly!” he ordered, then turned to his favorite black griffon with her head feathers dyed in pink “Gilly, you’ll assist Brandon in fighting that new mobile armor!”
“Yes Sir, but what about the other one?”
Right after that, they caught the Psycho MkII do something they can simply describe as... strange. The machine hands were caught picking a large pile of mud, the size of a family carriage, holding it as if the machine was playing dodgeball.
“Ready Pinkie?” Applejack said with a smug,
“Ready like a steamed hot apple pie!” the pink mare replied.
Flash quickly unleashed every force he got on his still healing right arm, as well as the right control stick. Simultaneously, the psycho frame inside starts to glow.
“Is... Is that what they call the psycho frame?” gasped Green Belly.
And then, a bang! The mud flies with speed so fast it breaks the barrier of sound. “What the... how can you guys do that?” Flash surprised “Earth pony magic, sugarcube!” Applejack replied with another smug and then blew her front hoof.
The mud rapidly had its way unobstructed towards the giant flying crab. The result: it hit right into the main camera, causing the machine to lose control for a good while.
“YES!” cheered Gromar.
“But it can still wipe all that mud out in mere seconds. Better get onto that base jabber with Gilly, buddy!”
“Okay, it’s time guys. Flash, bring us to the base jabber!” Twilight ordered.
...
“Sweet Celestia, that’s probably an instruction from either Applejack, Pinkie Pie, or both!” said Black Wine, followed by a laugh. “Bright Kindness, are you okay?”
“Yes... Yes, Sir. I... I don’t think we... sustained any damages!” stuttering Bright Kindness, the pilot of the Cancer.
“Good. If you saw that one dark blue machine with an oversize shield, ignore it and try not to engage in ANY fight. You'll be responsible for destroying their ammo depot, hangar, or any immobile military stuff. Roger that?”
“But Sir, there are several mobile suits firing at me!”
“Ignore them! I’ll take it for you!”
“Yes Sir!” she saluted.
“What a dumb conclusion I made. That’s an extremely well hidden base!” Black Wine scolded himself “Thank hoofness Bright Kindness scored a bullseye right in the first strike. I knew I choose the right pony!”
“The battlefield shall belong to you then, Lt. Bright!” He said while pulling out one of his beam rifles.
…
Another big explosion occurred. This time, it was closer. Shrapnel and debris flying everywhere, hitting any unfortunate creature that is not fast enough to run into their bunkers and below the base jabbers. They are the engineers who were ordered to stay inside the main hangar to assist Flash and Gilly in preparing them to fly into the battlefield.
“All of the fuel tanks are full. Prepare to roll out!” screamed Manatee “Make sure to hold on to the base jabber well. You two will go on an extremely bumpy ride!”
“But… but I have flown a lot!” said Flash.
“This one is different!” Manatee barked back.
Another after another explosion outside was like persuading him and Gilly to hurry up. They eventually left the hangar only a few seconds after it was hitted by one of the beam cannon strikes from the mysterious mobile armor.
“Everyone, direct your weapons to them!” scream Gromar “Do not let it come near the Psycho MkII!”
The night sky was then lit up by dozens upon dozens of bullets, beam shot and even missiles from the base. But none of it actually posed a threat to the giant flying crab. It still goes through all of those defense lines and starts levitating near the ground. It was only that moment, everyone could witness its gigantic size.
“My ruler can measure it as about 30 meters wide... and... and....” Green Belly stuttering in fear
“And what?” yelled Gromar.
“...16 meters tall, Sir!” he said. “That thing is humongous!”
But that’s only the beginning. Its two gigantic claws opened, threatening to cut any unfortunate mobile suit to half.
“Everyone, evading!” screamed Gromar. “Call the AA batteries too!”
But it’s too late for some of them. The claw was so large a simple swipe is strong enough to knock down a large building in the base, which the Cancer somehow accurately predicted its presence in the middle of a thick bunch of vines.
“That’s our dorm house damn it!” Gilly screamed.
And with that, they accelerate towards the Cancer. Without any notice, Flash decided to perform a “tactical surprise”, as Pinkie calls it: he jumped right on to the red mobile armor and let it throw him and the Psycho MkII all around the place.
“Sir, the Psycho MkII!” Bright Kindness screamed “I just let it jump on to me! I can’t shake it off!”
“Just keep doing it! You don’t need to completely fall off!” said Black Wine as he engaged one of the Jegan “Just enough for it to be distracted. Use the psycho frame!”
While hanging on it, Flash can suddenly feel some hot air blowing into his body. And, slowly but surely, a magical bright light coming off from the mobile armor’s main body, bright enough to temporarily make everything around him invisible and worsen his experience.
“Keep your ground, Flash!” Spike screamed “We must not let it near any of our friendly suits!”
“Are you nuts! What if it try to kill us by simply rubbing on something!” Rainbow Dash said.
And rubbing, it is! The thing suddenly turned itself upside down and lowered the altitude straight to the thick jungle. Flash could feel the mobile armor try to crash his machine up and down to get rid of him. To Bright Kindness, it doesn't really matter if another mobile suit thinks it can exploit her exposed belly up in the air, because that part was also covered with beam guns! Gilly learned about it the hard way when she'll make her base jabber damaged by one of the beam shots, a result of being too close to the dangerous mobile armor.
Eventually, Flash has to give up. He let his hand go and the suit straight up crashing into the mud and hard ground, bonus with several uncontrolled somersaults.
“Good. Now we can shoot the thing from behind!” Twilight said “Flash, Rainbow Dash! Prepare your Alicorn Wing!”
The machine quickly put up the hidden barrel towards its intended target. Flash and Rainbow Dash carefully adjusted the rangefinder in order for them to get the best result. “The left vernier first, okay?” Rainbow Dash said. Then, just after the crosshairs went green, something stopped them.
The Alicorn for some reason rapidly closed onto them and scooped them up. “Oh no you won’t!” said Black Wine. “Your targeting skills have a problem, Brandon! You can't outsmart me!”
“The Alicorn! It was here all the time!” Flash asked in confusion.
“Why didn't we see it beforehand?” Starlight Glimmer followed “Luster…”
The Alicorn then rapidly punched its right fist into him, but he used the shield to stop it just as fast. “Use the Vulcans!” asked Twilight.
But the main control monitor alerted them the ammo was empty. “No… no more bullets?” asked Fluttershy in fear.
“Awe c’mon!” moaned Rainbow Dash “You guys spend the whole night fixing this and forget about the Vulcan guns?”
“Its armor was heavily damaged. We don’t have time!” said Flash Sentry.
It all happened when they were pushed backward by the Alicorn. Flash was so engaged in the conversation with the Council of Friendship he straight up forgot that fact, and was only reminded by the annoyed Spike who quickly reminded them of the situation they were in. Flash deployed the psycho frame to fend off Black Wine’s sheer pushing power with the unicorn and alicorn magic’s assistance of Starlight, Twilight and Rarity, while the magical earth pony strength of Pinkie Pie and Applejack was put into use in order to stop the already deployed beam tonfa from the Alicorn to have any fatal cut into the dark blue MS.
And then, a familiar voice spoke up. Her words shocked Flash to the core.
“You evils released him!” Luster Dawn speaks up “Immediately!”
“Luster Dawn!” Flash and the whole Council gasped.